Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State volleyball team rebounded from a difficult loss earlier in the week with a resounding 3-0 victory over Coppin State Friday night at Joseph Echols Hall.
NSU earned its first conference win of the season with a 25-15, 25-16, 25-14 victory over the Eagles. The Spartans improved to 5-9 overall and 1-1 in MEAC play, after their late-match rally fell just short in four sets to Hampton on Wednesday. Coppin State saw its record drop to 3-14, 0-2.
Junior
Beatriz Ferreira continued her solid play, leading all players with 10 kills. Senior
Jasmine Frazier added eight kills and no errors on just 12 swings, while junior
Kristen Burt totaled 22 assists. NSU hit .181 as a team, but played superb defense, limiting the Eagles to a -.022 attack percentage.
Freshman
Adriana Ramos and senior
Tracey Copley had 11 and 10 digs, respectively. Freshman
Jasmin Flowers started her first match of the year and had three kills and four blocks. NSU had seven blocks to just four for Coppin State.
NSU did not get off to a fast start, though, as Coppin State jumped out to a 5-2 lead early on. But down 6-3, junior
Megan Lavo held serve nine straight times to give the Spartans the six-point lead, 12-6. Frazier and Ferreira combined for five kills during that 9-0 run.
The Eagles got to within 15-11 on three straight attack errors on the Spartans, but a short time later NSU used a 5-0 run, helped by three straight errors on Coppin State at the end of it, for a 21-12 advantage. A kill from Ferreira and two more Eagle errors quickly ended the first set.
Flowers knocked down an early kill as NSU avoided the early letdown, taking a 5-2 lead to start the second set. A 5-2 run by the Eagles tied things up at 7-7, but Ramos hit a pair of kills as NSU took the lead back and eventually went up by three, 15-12, on a service ace from Copley. Lavo then continued her magic on serve, starting an 8-0 run that made it 23-14 and completely took the Eagles out of their offense.
Tied at 4-4 in the third set, Frazier hit a pair of kills as NSU started to pull ahead, and then the senior started an 8-0 run with another kill that got the lead to double digits, 16-6. Frazier also hit two service aces during that stretch. Coppin State got as close to six at 19-13, but a 4-0 run, led by two kills from Ferreira, put the match out of reach for the Eagles.
The Spartans held a 38-24 advantage in digs on the night to go along with a 7-1 edge in service aces, led by three from Lavo.
NSU will get a much-needed break before hosting Howard on Oct. 9 at 3 p.m.